More Like This

Preview

This chapter examines Descartes's difficulties in establishing starting points for his physics. In one sense, the starting point of the Principles, taken as a whole, is opposed to God and man as radically different in kind, and perhaps not even possessed of geometric sequence. In another sense, it is the simplex out of which God generates the world: a bit of matter in rectilinear motion. The first section of this chapter examines the trouble that...

This chapter examines Descartes's difficulties in establishing starting points for his physics. In one sense, the starting point of the Principles, taken as a whole, is opposed to God and man as radically different in kind, and perhaps not even possessed of geometric sequence. In another sense, it is the simplex out of which God generates the world: a bit of matter in rectilinear motion. The first section of this chapter examines the trouble that this ambiguity generates for Descartes even as he chooses the latter version. The second section discusses the strengths and weaknesses in Descartes's choice of bits of matter in rectilinear uniform motion.